PODCAST CORNER

Talking Architecture & Design

Sustainability: As hosts of the 16th Sustainability Awards, we know a thing or two about the value and importance of sustainability of our urban environment.

Launched in 2017 as part of the Architecture & Design publishing and news network, Talking Architecture & Design podcast interviews industry leaders, innovators, personalities and a range of industry movers and shakers. With no subject that is off-limits, we talk to those that not only make change happen, but also those that turn that change into industry norms and trends. In this issue we are featuring our Sustainability podcast series, proudly partnered by Interface.

EPISODE 129: NICK HILL, CO-FOUNDER AND CEO OF COAST4C ON THE IMPORTANCE OF SEAWEED & ITS ROLE IN HELPING TO FIGHT CLIMATE CHANGE

Coast4C is aimed at unlocking the potential of regenerative seaweed farming and the circular economy to deliver benefits for communities, conservation, climate and commerce. Nick has a PhD in seaweed farming and fishing livelihoods and was also the co-founder of Net-Works and Our Sea Our Life programs. In this exclusive interview he describes how seaweed can be an answer to our climate change woes. EPISODE 121: INDUSTRIAL DESIGNER AND FOUNDER OF REEF DESIGN LAB ALEX GOAD TALKS ABOUT THE AMAZING THINGS YOU CAN DO WITH CORAL REEF RESTORATION TECHNOLOGY EPISODE 118: KITTIPHOT BOOCHANGKOOL, GROUP SUSTAINABILITY LEADER AT DWP ON SUSTAINABILITY, GREEN CERTIFICATION AND THE CIRCULAR ECONOMY

Alex Goad is passionate about using design for marine restoration and the role it is playing to communicate research to the wider public.

In this exclusive one-on-one interview, Alex explains the amazing potential of new ideas and technologies in design, architecture, engineering, science, the humanities and the arts and how these disciplines and design innovations can help address the urgent issues of our times. Kittiphot Boochangkool is the new Group Sustainability Leader at dwp overseeing group sustainability initiatives and helping architects and designers unlock their full sustainability potential.

Boochangkool was raised and educated in the United States, Thailand and United Kingdom with a background in law, international relations and public policy and a specific focus on climate and energy.

bit.ly/TADPodcast_129

Proudly sponsored by bit.ly/TADPodcast_121 bit.ly/TADPodcast_118

SUSTAINABILITY SERIES PARTNER

EPISODE 110: OLIVER HEATH EXPLAINS THE CONNECTION BETWEEN HUMAN-CENTRIC AND BIOPHILIC DESIGN PRINCIPLES EPISODE 106: INTERFACE’S JAN PETER VAN DEUTEKOM ON HOW TO SUCCESSFULLY DESIGN A SUSTAINABLE FLOORING PRODUCT

Oliver Heath is the founder of Oliver Heath Design, and has been a television presenter on the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and National Geographic Channel for over 20 years. Author of 4 books on sustainability and interior design, most recently: Design a Healthy Home

As the Biophilic Design Ambassador for Interface, he is also the author of the Positive Spaces guides. In this recently recorded interview, he explains the connection between human-centric and biophilic design principles. Interface Product Development Manager Jan Peter van Deutekom, or JP as he’s known talks about the flooring maker’s approach to product management and concept design to support its many customers.

JP gives us a global perspective of how to approach designing products with sustainable thinking as well as how its possible to design products that will suit the needs of many diverse markets around the world.

Top Episodes (All time)

EPISODE 1: Talking with Robin Mellon, CEO of Australia’s Supply Chain Sustainability School - 5,861

EPISODE 52: Koichi Takada talks about sustainable design and how COVID-19 has forever changed how we work, live and design our buildings - 2,578

EPISODE 97: My sustainability journey by 2021 Sustainability Awards Lifetime Achievement winner, Tone Wheeler - 2,445

EPISODE 91: Stephen Choi talks about biophilic design and the opportunities it brings to architects - 2,386

EPISODE 2: Talking with Helen Lochhead, president-elect of the Australian Institute of Architects - 2,321

For more information on our podcasts, go to: podcast.architectureanddesign.com.au

bit.ly/TADPodcast_110 bit.ly/TADPodcast_106

SUSTAINABILITY SERIES PARTNER

Climbing the mountain of sustainability with Interface

Sustainability is a deeply multifaceted, incredibly comprehensive and often quite overwhelming notion - particularly when it comes to product design on a global scale. Here, we get an insight into what that looks like for Jan Peter van Deutekom, Vice President Product Design and Portfolio Management at Interface - a flooring brand that prides itself in designing innovative products with sustainability in mind.

JP, as Jan Peter is also known, leads the product portfolio team across Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia with his efforts centred around new product development, product management and concept design to support Interface’s diverse group of customers. Here, he explains why sustainability is like a mountain - and how Interface is scaling all of its different slopes.

“For us design is much more than the pretty picture, what the product looks like, the pattern or the colours,” says JP. “It’s really about how it is constructed, but also what it does for the user, or in a bigger context for the planet. So, we started to use lifecycle analysis as a management tool, and carbon as the magic metric, to understand product footprint. Because carbon runs through every aspect of sustainability.”

Using this focus on carbon to conduct life cycle analyses, Interface found that close to 70% of a product’s impact is caused by the raw materials and the production stage – a part that manufacturers can absolutely control on their own terms.

“That inspired us to adhere to a couple of design principles, which we see as different slopes to climb that sustainability mountain. Reducing, recycling and redesigning,” says JP. “By reducing, we refer to dematerialising – using less material, like yarn, and backing, in our carpet tiles. Then we use more recycled content in all layers of the product, or completely redesign the product. And that can be done by developing new technologies to create a product or find alternative raw materials.”

But as with any design venture, Interface fuses the drive for more sustainable products with the aspiration to make beautiful products – with nature often a backdrop to both of these ambitions. “In my team, I have seven product designers and 35 concept designers working in markets in Europe, Asia, and Australia, and a similar size team in the US. And they translate not only customer requirements, but also sustainability objectives into product development,” says JP.

“One of the really interesting concepts we use in this regard is biomimicry,” he adds. “Learning from nature, and how nature would design products. And it’s really very interesting to follow those principles, because nature uses cyclical models that are actually closed loops. So, we asked ourselves the question, ‘how would nature design a flooring product?’. And as a great example of random design, we looked at how a forest looks with leaves coming down in autumn. And they’re on the floor in a completely random way, but still showing an interesting picture from a distance.”

“We used that idea to design a carpet tile that could be installed in a random way, which really had a major impact on installation speed, on waste, plus operational benefits, because we could use obsolete yarns in the product, which usually wouldn’t be done or thrown away. So it reduced waste,” JP explains further. “And it’s a great example of how biomimicry, as a design principle, can be used in designing great products that are more sustainable.”

Biomimicry aside, Interface is undoubtedly one of the most advanced design businesses when it comes to sustainability, with initiatives that cover every stage of the product lifecycle, and even go a step past carbon neutral - to carbon negative products. Find out more about JP’s work and this innovative company, by listening to the full Talking Architecture & Design podcast episode.

ABOVE Jan Peter van Deutekom from Interface.

LISTEN TO PODCAST EPISODE 106 bit.ly/TADPodcast_Ep106

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